The Beauty of a Secret
by katyazamoxo
Summary: Tori Jackson was just as bad as her best friend Alison Dilaurentis. They loved to act older than they were, they would go to college parties with their older friends, they would drink alcohol and flirt with college boys. When Alison disappears, Tori and her friends grew apart and eventually lost all contact with each other, only to be reunited after receiving texts from A.


Tori Jackson sat in the Hastings' barn with four of her best friends; Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, Emily Fields and Aria Montgomery. The only one of their group missing was Alison Dilaurentis, the girl who brought this group of girls, who couldn't be more different, together.

Spencer was the brains of the group, a straight A student who had been planning on going to college since kindergarten. Hanna was shy and chubby but could tell you what was in the latest _Vogue_ and _Teen Vogue_ page for page if you asked her. Emily was the athlete, she was ready to swim herself through college. Aria was the artsy one, she was trying to 'find herself' which resulted in her dying a stripe of her hair pink. Tori was the second in command of their little group, she and Ali had been friends since they were in diapers. They were both as sneaky as each other, they loved to go to college parties and dress and act like they were older so they could flirt with college boys. Although Tori seemed to tell Ali everything, she kept her own fair share of secrets from Ali much like Ali did. Ali was the leader of their group, lying was second nature to her. She was smart, very smart and she was able to mould each girl into her perfect image.

The five girls were sitting in the barn passing cups filled with some sort of alcohol around, waiting for Ali to arrive. A pop song playing on the radio as the girls were talking and giggling until the lights and music cut out.

"It must be the storm." Spencer concluded, being the voice of reason as the atmosphere in the barn turned tense.

"Something's out there." Aria panicked

"Oh come on guys, you're being paranoid, it's nothing" Tori remained sat on the seat with her legs dangling over one of the arms, her back resting on the other as the girls stood up huddling together with a torch.

The barn door creaks a little and Tori looks up, knowing it was Ali messing with them. It was like something out of the cheesy horror movie she and Ali had watched when they were younger.

As the girls got closer to the barn door, Ali jumped out yelling "Gotcha!" making the girls scream as Ali and Tori cracked up at their friend's' misfortune as Spencer complains that it was "So not funny".

As the girls sat back down in the circle and the drinks began being passed around again conversation picked up and the girls began accusing Tori of being in on Alison's prank.

"Come on guys, the storm isn't that bad and the only one who wasn't here was Ali." Tori laughed.

"Our friend here is too dazed to be scared, look at her eyes." Ali pointed out. It was no secret amongst the girls that Tori liked to meet up with some of the older guys in Rosewood and smoke weed every now and then. Tori just giggled at the comment, knowing she couldn't argue with it.

"Ali, did you download the new Beyonce?" Hanna asked

"Not yet." She replied

"I'm loving her new video." Emily chimed in

"Maybe a little too much Em," Ali said with a sly smile before taking a drink of the alcohol and passing it to Tori who takes a drink then passes it to Aria.

"Be careful Aria, take too much you'll tell us all your secrets." Spencer laughed

"Friends share secrets, that's what keeps us close," Ali spoke, quieting the laughs from the girls around her.

"Drink up Aria," Tori spoke up.

Before she knew where she was, Tori was woken up by Aria. Spencer and Ali were missing from the barn.

"What happened, where are Ali and Spencer?" Tori asked groggily.

"She's gone," Spencer spoke as she entered the barn.

"What do you mean she's gone?" Aria asked

"I've looked everywhere. I think I heard her scream."

* * *

Tori pulled up to school in her new mint green Fiat 500, parking in her usual spot in front of the school. As she lifted her bag from the passenger seat, she seen Emily talking to someone who looked a lot like Aria. But Aria was in Iceland, surely she would have posted something online about coming back home to Rosewood. They hadn't text or I'M'd in a while so Tori didn't expect a personal message about her homecoming but she would have expected Aria to post on social media.

As Tori reached her locker, she saw Hanna and Mona Vanderwaal, the new 'it girls' of the school since Ali disappeared.

"Hey, Tori." Hanna greeted. The girls were still kind of friends as they were both popular and got asked to a lot of the same parties, it was hard for them not to see each other.

"Hey Han, Mona," Tori replied as she checked her hair and makeup in her locker mirror.

"Have you seen the new English teacher?" Mona asked, the excitement evident in her face.

"I'm guessing he's gorgeous going by that look on your face." Tori chuckled a little. "Hey Han, did you see if Aria was back in town?"

"Uh, yeah, I think I saw her talking to Emily." The blonde confirmed Tori's suspicions.

The three girls made their way to their first class of the day, English. As they walked into the class and took their seats, Tori noticed Aria and Emily sitting together near the back of the class, obviously talking about Hanna, Mona and herself as their eyes didn't leave the three girls. Hanna waves to the two girls across the class and Tori offers a small smile, trying to be polite. Spencer walks into the class smiling shyly to her old friends before taking her seat.

Their new English teacher walked into the class and Mona was right, he was hot. He had written his name on the board and as turned around to greet the class, his expression dropped.

"Oh, crap." He blurted out, looking directly at Aria. The whole class turned in her direction and to make things worse, her phone went off at that same moment. She looks down at her phone while mumbling an apology.

"Uhh, I'm your new English teacher, Mr Fitz." He looked just as embarrassed as Aria.

"Alison?" Aria whispered.

* * *

After school, Tori drove home and as expected the house was empty. A large Edwardian style house that was fit for a family of 5 was left with one teenage girl as her parents were too occupied with work.

Tori trudged up the stairs to her room, kicked her shoes off and dumped her bag down. She then put on her laptop to play some music and turned it up obnoxiously loud since no one was here to tell her to turn it down.

She lay back in her bed and pulled a little tub that held a small amount of weed and an already rolled blunt, she had been waiting all day to light up, hearing Aria whisper Alison while looking at her phone had filled Tori's mind with all kinds of doubt and paranoia.

' _Was Ali still alive?'_

' _Was she contacting Aria and not me?'_

' _Had she reached out to the other girls?'_

Tori decided to stop thinking about it and instead smoke her worries away until her phone went off, signalling she had received a text.

 _Oh, dear Tori… Remember what Mommy and Daddy said_

 _they would do if their precious princess was smoking again._

 _Let's hope they don't find out. -A_

No one knew Tori still smoked on occasion. She had stopped for a while after her parents found out after she came home from a college party with Ali and threatened to send her away to some rehab boot camp thing. Of course, she started again a while after the threat, she was having nightmares about what happened to Alison, her mind wouldn't allow her to rest.

Her thoughts of who could have sent the text were interrupted as she heard sirens whiz past her house and down the street. She looked out the window and seen a large gathering outside Ali's old house.

She stepped into a pair of shoes that were lying at the door not bothering if they went with her outfit and dashed out the door and down the street. Thoughts of Alison plagued her mind. After the text she had received and the incident in English a part of Tori believed Alison was back and went to her old house looking for her family.

However, when she reached the Dilaurentis house she didn't see Alison sitting on the steps like she expected. Instead, she seen coroners wheel the stretcher with a black body bag on top to the van. Her heart stopped, Ali wasn't just missing, she had been murdered.


End file.
